The Internet Is Going Crazy Over This Pizza Math Problem

Sometimes a strongly-worded math problem can ruin your day. And no, we're not talking about trying to split the bill at a restaurant. We mean the logic-based, riddle-like math problems you have to wrack your brain over for a few minutes before you come up with what you think is the right answer. But sometimes the question that gives you the most stress can be the simplest.

One such seemingly simple word problem involving pizza was posted to Imgur six days ago and has totally caught fire online since. It asks a student: "Reasonableness: Marty ate 4/6 of his pizza and Luis ate 5/6 of his pizza. Marty ate more pizza than Luis. How is that possible?"

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Wondering why such a straight-forward question is going viral? While the student answered (very logically and reasonably in our opinion) that "Marty's pizza is bigger than Luis's pizza," this was not considered a correct answer to the teacher grading the tests. Thus, the grade-marker wrote in green: "That is not possible because 5/6 is greater than 4/6 so Luis ate more."

Most commenters are taking issue with the teacher's response, saying that the wrong doesn't lie in the arithmetic but the wording of the question. In their opinion, the student is correct. They also believe that both the original question and the teacher's comment are poorly worded.

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And, as A Plus points out, how and why is the student not right? "A fraction is a unit of measurement. A pizza is not. There is no uniform size for a pizza. It is not an absolute unit," the site notes. "The problem is that to claim that the student 'ignored a given/assumption (that the pizzas are the same size) to make an unreasonable answer seem reasonable' is an assumption."